Summer Home Tour and Seasonal Decor Changes

June 23, 2016

I am so excited to be sharing our home for Simply Summer Home Tour hosted by Nina Hendrick along with Country Living and Birch Lane. This week 29 other bloggers have been inviting us into their homes to show us some fresh summer updates. I love seeing where people live and how they make their environment comfortable and inspiring to them. If you are new to my blog, welcome! We have been working on our 1950’s 1100 square foot Cape for the past year and half. We moved from Utah to Connecticut and have really been enjoying our life on the East coast, being 800 meters from the beach helps! We just had a little baby boy, Finn who is 8 weeks old and two girls, Ella who is 8 and Lola who is 5. You can see most for our home tour HERE and pictures of our home in Utah as well. I will share a lot of our home and simple changes I make for one of my favorite seasons.

This is our front room, the room you see right when you walk in our home. I find myself trying to simplify and declutter daily. Summer is a great time to simplify and have less to clean and more time to be outside. I recently painted the large wood tray on my table from gray to white and layered it with the wicker tray. Love how a coat of white paint can brighten up a space and make it feel like summer. The pops of pink in my rug are really fun to play off of, you can find my rug and shelter sofaHERE.

I love to use pillows that I can switch from room to room. I had these linen pillows with the green welt in our babies room and brought them out here for the summer, I actually really like the touch of green. My girls are always sitting on the floor making a bracelet or playing a game, I added the large floor pillows for them.

I think green is an excellent accent color for summer. Everything is green outside, most trees have lost their flowers and are green. Along with the pillows from my babies nursery I brought out this painting from Katherine Jury and added it to my bookcase. Everything in my bookcase is pretty neutral so adding any pop of color works well and not to mention I love the green with my gold typewriter.

I kind of have a theme of moving things around my home and calling it “summer.” But I totally believe that pieces can have a new life when moved around, shopping your home is the best place to shop! I had this bike picture hanging in our hallway and exchanged another piece for this one and brought it out for summer. It is kind of a focal point and doesn’t work as well in the fall and winter, come the change of seasons I will be shopping my home again for a new fresh look.

I still have a lot of throws throughout our home even in the summer, they create a cozy feel. I do put away all the dark and heavy ones and try to keep them light like the cream throw and pink throw (similar style). I also added the indigo pillows on my chair, I think those are my absolute favorite. You can find similar indigo pillows HERE.

Ok don’t start calling me the crazy wallpaper lady! I really do love the way wallpaper can change the look of a space. Especially when it is a peel and stick paper that can easily be put up and taken down. I used THIS paper from Chaising Paper that reminds me of a vintage style floral, perfect for our older home. I love the pop of color with cream clock and my painted piano, you can read how I painted that piano HERE.

One of the first things we remodeled was our little kitchen. We actually had our cabinets refaced, they were a dark oak and the floors were a vinyl, it was so awful and it really made me depressed being in it. I had white cabinets in our old home and have always loved bright kitchens. You can see the before and all the details on our kitchen remodel HERE.

Watermelon is the definition of summer food for us, there is always a bowl on our counter for snacking. Love a new summer dish towel, you can find them HERE.

I changed out the plates on my subway tile. I hung a white tart dish and the gold succulent holder with command strips, easy way to change up decor.

Our kitchen is about 10×13 square feet, with not a lot of storage. I added the beach bag on top of our fridge and that is where I store chips and crackers, a mini pantry. My daughter painted that water color on my fridge. Great way to added some color, put your kids on a painting project and give them ideas for the season. You can find my fridge HERE.

We love our little banquet up to our table. We don’t have a large great room, so I wanted to create a cozy spot for everyone to hang out while cooking and baking is going on. We also do a lot of homework and this is my desk during the day. I added these new white pillows to the settee to brighten it up.

I created a little drink station for summer. With kids coming in and out all day it is so handy to have it out and ready for them. I found this one at Birch Lane.

I found my little beverage station stand at Home Goods in the bathroom section. I simply switch up the hardware and changed out the bottom basket to make it a little more my own and not look so mainstream. Bonus it provides more storage!

I think the reason I love this season the most is the due to my hydrangea bushes giving me fresh blooms to bring inside. I keep just three simple jars on my table in the summer and they always have some sort of fresh cut flower from my yard in them. Flowers are truly day-makers!

Our bedroom has dark walls and I brighten it up with white bedding and these new white pillows from Birch Lane. I also changed out the hats above my bed to the straw beach hats. You can read more about my bedroom HERE and you can find my shelter bed HERE.

I manaaged to squeeze in a glider chair and bassinet for Finn in our 10’x11′ master bedroom. It is a cozy room, but I actually love it. You can read more about his bassinet HERE. Sadly he is already out growing the bassinet and has spent some nights in his crib, growing too quickly! You can find my floral art HERE.

I couldn’t help but make a little change to my daughters room. When I saw THIS limited edition wallpaper from Chasing Paper . Yes, wallpaper again. BUT, it is SO easy to put up and it actually comes off just as easy. I saved the backing the paper came on incase I want to take it down, don’t ask me why I would want to do that….maybe if we move. The limited edition paper comes in another color I debated on too.

I went with the blue/gray floral pattern to compliment the new duvets I found from Primark, they only sell in their brick and mortar stores. I keep them folded at the end of their bed, basically for decor. They just sleep with the sheets I found at Target and their blankets in the summer.

Lola, my 5 year old is obsessed with dogs and animals. I had to have THIS darling dog pillow. One rainy afternoon I had the girls paint self portraits of themselves to hang above their bed. It was fun to commission them for a specific spot I wanted a pieces of their art, they loved that I framed them and used them in their decor. You can find their frames HERE.

The string art above Ella’s bed was something I made, you can read how I did it HERE.

They both have little desks that were both side tables. They actually pulled up a chair to one of the tables one day and I loved the ideas. They use them a lot to create.

Hair not even brushed and straight out of bed to her desk to color. That is exactly why I love to create an inspiring room for them. Believe me all of the stuffed animals are out at one point in the day, while they pretend to be teachers and the stuffed animals are students. But after they play or get something new out they know to put things back. They take pride in their home and surroundings.

This is their little play area that I had already put wallpaper up. I added the new Chasing Paper wallpaper to the door to tie in the two wallpapers. I love to mix patterns. It works best when you have two different scales of patterns. You can read more about their bedroom HERE and see what it looked like before.

I can’t share my girls bedroom without inviting you to tour Finn’s room, our new little 8 week old baby boy. You can read about his bedroom HERE.

This is our family room and guest room that is adjacent to the girls bedroom. We have a little play area behind the sofa for their toys and lego table. We recently added the new sliding barn door and hardware from White Shanty. What a difference that door makes in the way of saving so much space. Read more about this room HERE.

The exterior of our home got a little facelift and major curb appeal. Just in time for summer and to really appreciate it. You can read more about it HERE and see the front of our little Connecticut Cape.

We will for sure be spending a lot of time outside on our deck this summer. With a tiny house we don’t entertain really at all in the winter, not a lot of room for a big gathering. That is the only thing I miss about a bigger home. Come summer time we make it up to our friends and have them over for barbecues and games. You can see more of our back yard deck remodel HERE.

Thank you for coming by my Summer Home Tour and a big thanks to Nina for inviting me to be apart of such talent. Make sure and check out all the other tours for today and from the past week!

This post may contain affiliate links. All of the opinions expressed are truly all my own. Thanks to Birch Lane for sponsoring some of the items in this post.

Oh my goodness, there is just so much to love about this tour! I love the shot of your little girl playing the piano, and your kids’ rooms are just perfection! I also always love looking at your kitchen! Your whole home is gorgeous! 🙂

Brooke, thank you so much for sharing this – not only is your home stunningly gorgeous, but I was so surprised and LOVED seeing my Night Floral wallpaper for Chasing Paper up on your wall 🙂 Thank you so much for supporting me as an artist!! xoxo

I love your house! So many fun details. What paint color did you use on your front door? I’m going to paint my front door and have a bunch of samples similar to your door color but It’s so hard to pick because I don’t want it looking too blue or purple toned… I really like the color of yours!

I absolutely love love love your home! It’s so cozy and warm. I love home decor and looking at your Instagram posts you truly inspire me to move things around my home and to go out shopping too (haha). Every inch of your house is utilized perfectly! You’re so talented, bravo to you and your cute family!

Brooke, I absolutely adore your whimsical, gathered little home. I was going to list a few of my favourite things, though when I looked back through your pics I realised there were just too many! Ha, ha. I do especially love your girls’ room though.

Brooke,
So fun seeing the new exterior fix ups. Would you be willing to source your front door handleset?
Thank you so much for your time.
Have loved following you and love your blog and ig feed so much! 🙂
Suzanne Severns

In the process of ordering that same IKEA DOMSJO sink and ran across your Pinterest pic. Thank you for the instructions on how to make it undermount!! So helpful. Question for you – Is the front of the sink flat like an apron/farmhouse sink? I can’t tell from your picture or theirs on their website. Also, has it held up well? Debating on getting a ceramic sink vs. enamel-on-cast iron. Thanks for your help! Love your style.

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Welcome

I have always loved Nesting. It became more rewarding when I started preparing the nest for my Ella Grace, Lola Faith and Finn. I design around things that have a story and mix in funky trendy pieces. I am a Utah native, Connecticut transplant with 18 years experience at a design firm in Utah in designing, managing and as head store buyer. I love Kevin, Ella and Lola, to get my heart rate up in any sort of group setting, eating simple and clean or just give me a sweet potato and I am happy.
Contact me about working together[email protected].